Cognitive and emotional demands of black humour processing: the role of intelligence, aggressiveness and mood

Abstract

Humour processing is a complex information-processing task that is dependent on cognitive and emotional aspects which presumably influence frame-shifting and conceptual blending, mental operations that underlie humour processing. The aim of the current study was to find distinctive groups of subjects with respect to black humour processing, intellectual capacities, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. A total of 156 adults rated black humour cartoons and conducted measurements of verbal and nonverbal intelligence, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. Cluster analysis yields three groups comprising following properties: (1) moderate black humour preference and moderate comprehension; average nonverbal and verbal intelligence; low mood disturbance and moderate aggressiveness; (2) low black humour preference and moderate comprehension; average nonverbal and verbal intelligence, high mood disturbance and high aggressiveness; and (3) high black humour preference and high comprehension; high nonverbal and verbal intelligence; no mood disturbance and low aggressiveness. Age and gender do not differ significantly, differences in education level can be found. Black humour preference and comprehension are positively associated with higher verbal and nonverbal intelligence as well as higher levels of education. Emotional instability and higher aggressiveness apparently lead to decreased levels of pleasure when dealing with black humour. These results support the hypothesis that humour processing involves cognitive as well as affective components and suggest that these variables influence the execution of frame-shifting and conceptual blending in the course of humour processing.

Funny or Angry? Neural Correlates of Individual Differences in Aggressive Humor Processing

“…For the degree of anger, aggression improved the degree of anger of the materials in the present study, which was consistent with Anderson’s (2002) conclusion that aggressive attack could trigger anger. It suggested that higher aggressiveness apparently leads to decreased levels of pleasure (Willinger et al, 2017), which is inconsistent with our finding, probably because their materials were not point-to-self. It reminds us that the direction of humor can influence humor processing and therefore the future study of humor would pay attention on the direction of humor.…”

“…Previous behavioral experiments have shown that aggression increased the degree of funniness of humor materials (Epstein and Smith, 1956) and led to decreased levels of pleasure (Willinger et al, 2017). Further exploration showed that the materials with highly aroused aggression made participants feel more pleasure (Strickland, 1959; Dworkin and Efran, 1967).…”

“…Concluding details of these studies, we found that it was not clear whether aggressive materials were humorous or not and what the direction of humor was, which may affect the degree of funniness of aggressive materials and non-aggressive materials. In addition, Willinger et al (2017) found that there was a different evaluation of aggression between point-to-self aggression and point-to-others aggression.…”

Funny but aversive: A large-scale survey of the emotional response to Covid-19 humor in the Italian population during the lockdown

“…In brief, gender differences and changes with aging were shown to be amplified by the darker themes, with women and older adults judging this type of humor generally as less funny and more aversive (Aillaud and Piolat, 2012;Carretero-Dios and Ruch, 2010;Herzog et al, 2006;Herzog and Karafa, 1998;Johnson, 1992). In addition, one study also showed the role of education in perceived funniness: specifically, dark humor cartoons tended to be rated as funnier by participants with higher levels of educational attainment (Willinger et al, 2017). Concerning the role of personality traits, there is a vast number of studies on humor production and humor styles (e.g., Dozois et al, 2013;Papousek et al, 2017;Ruch et al, 2018).…”

The portrait of spiritual intelligence and aggressiveness of university students

“…Studies have demonstrated that high aggressiveness in students is caused by low emotional and spiritual intelligence (Ahmed et al, 2016). Results of relevant studies show that there is a relationship between students' aggressiveness levels and emotional intelligence (Willinger et al, 2017;Mitrofan, 2018;García, Salguero, & Fernández 2017;Garaigordobil & Peña, 2015). Emotional intelligence (EQ) is viewed as one's ability to recognize one's and people's emotions and to know how to behave with others.…”